I am writting here because I find myself in a very Strange situation and nobody seems to know what to do with me.
I am trying to find the procedures I have to follow in order to get the oversea chinese status. This will allow me to enroll as an oversea chinese student at NTU. My biggest challenge is to get information on the paperwork I have to go through.
My situation is the Following:
I was born in Taiwan in the 90’s then was adopted by Canadians (I have no contact at all with my biological family). I figures I still held the Taiwan nationality since I found my hold and now-expired Taiwanese passport with an ID in it. Moreover, it has an ‘‘F’’ meaning that my household registration is in New Taipei. I lived for almost 25 years in Canada and never went back. Now, my studies are bringing me back to Taiwan, but it looks like nobody really know (or care) what I have to do. People from TECO in Ottawa, the different ministries and bureau and offices all gave me the same links to the same websites with no useful information (or at least in English since my mandarin is quite bad). And I have been in touch with all of them for a few weeks with some email exchanges that led to nothing.
I just need the first few steps like which forms do I have to fill? What documents do I have to provide (after paying some good money to get them translated if needed…!) to register as an oversea chinese? I am even ready to pay for some fast track administrative channels if there is any.
I know I am being impatient and sound desperate, but I just feel like nobody in the administration care enough to help me. NTU told me that they are not the ones handling this kinf of issues. At the end of the day, I just want it to happen. It might be Worth it to mention that I am aware of the draft and that I Don’t really care and will do it if I have to.
Thank you for any help you can provide! I am beginning to Believe that I will not be able to get my PhD because of some people not wanting to make the extra effort for my ‘‘special’’ case.
A long time ago I went to NTU asking if I could transfer my credits from UT Austin and it really sounded like if I wanted to enroll in any Taiwanese universities, I have to take the same tests that any other Taiwanese takes. Which as you can imagine is literally impossible for any overseas Chinese person. I have tried taking the tests to get you a government job. It was for a NIA posting, I scored around 70-ish for the English portion (it had a lot of weird vocabularies that are not commonly used in North America) which I’m told is basically a score most Taiwanese envy, but I scored a 2 for the Chinese portion. When you can’t even understand half the characters (none of them are in common use outside of academia) let alone know what it’s referring to, it’s hopeless.
Those college entrance exams are like SAT x 1000. They’re incredibly difficult even for a Taiwanese who spends 16 hours a day studying for, let alone an overseas Chinese.
Unfortunately, I do not have nationality in another country, so academic route is more or less closed off for me in Taiwan, but UT Austin would happily accept me into their Geological program, and that’s a pretty hard school to get into.
And by the way, I think those programs that foreigners study for are pretty much a “white monkey” program. They get foreigners to come here to make the schools look all international, and it seems not too hard to get into. Real college admissions, especially to a school like NTU is quite hard (you would find it easier to get admitted to an actual Ivy League university). I think they’re more or less “trimmed down”.
hey @jctl93 , welcome to the forum!
It sounds like your new life in Canada turned out rather well, at least we hope it did, considering I also have an adopted sibling.
There’ll be others here with some links or recommendations.
My first question would be to ask TECO in Ottawa about getting R.O.C. passport up-to-date, if that sounds like something you are targeting to do.
Good luck, and the motherland should welcome you back mostly with open arms.
Reading the page, I am not sure if someone who wasborn in Taiwan and has lived abroad for 6 or more years has an overseas chinese student identity. If you are not sure too, the first step may be to confirm about it with OCAC.
If you already confirmed it and you have the identity, and you are male, the first step may be to renew your passport at TECO, then get an overseas compatriot identity certificate or endorsement at OCAC, if you want to avoid conscription.
This is an instruction for 2019 autumn admission process in Mandarin.
Now I read it should be for PhD. So this one.
I think your case is the same with people who moved abroad when they were young, and it may not be bad that PhD students to be can figure out what they need by themselves.